Relay reviewed
Relay
Still Point Of Turning
(Bubble Core)
Studio engineer shows the shoegaze bands how it’s done.
Being behind the boards for a dense, My Bloody Valentine-aping session must either be the bore of a lifetime or audiophile porn. Jeff Zeigler has sat and waited while bands like The Swirlies and Aspera tracked themselves, and he obviously felt they weren’t touching on something. So he pulls his Relay alias into play for a dense stroll through post-rave, psychedelic sunshine. Behaving as a full band for Still Point Of Turning, the difference Zeigler is making must be apparent only to him. “New Domestic Landscape” bursts the doors open in an exhaust-filled rush of Daydream Nation rockets and “Driver” stuttersteps through a gauzy haze. But after awhile Still falls into a standard-issue, shoegazing vocal rut that sounds like “I Wanna Be Adored” hollowed out for the ghosts of The Beta Band. Some of Zeigler’s better ideas come across in instrumentals “Prill” and “Pre,” where he forsakes the paved roads for some toil in steel brush.
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Context.”
